Upgrading from AMD 3200 XP, need help!

[Grassroots]

My AMD 3200 XP is bottlenecking the performance of my games severely, and I would like to upgrade to an AMD 64 processor. However, apparently I will need a new motherbaord to do this (different socket types on the processor?). I was wondering if I could get a few reccomendations on a motherboard/processor combination that would provide a noticible difference in performance (I use my comptuer for games and photoshop mostly), and my video card is an Nvidia 6800GT (agp). Also, I have never upgraded a motherboard or processor before, how difficult is this? Are there any good guides for doing this on one's own? Thank you for the help in advance!

 

[11427]

I'd suggest an MSI K8N Neo2 and an A64 3200+. A pretty good board that has an AGP slot. I dunno how noticable it will be,...Photoshop stuff will likely run a bit quicker and you'll pick up a few FPS in your games, but I doubt it'll knock your socks off. If you OC and run it up in the 2.5 2.6 (or higher) range you may well notice a good speed increase. Upgrades a pretty simple nowadays,..very very few jumpers or dip switches left, basically its just pull out the old stick in the new, fresh install of an OS and drivers and away you go. Unless you have a Dell, HP, Compaq, IBM, or some other mostly proprietary machine if thats the case you'll be better off starting from scratch with a new case and PSU.

 

[Grassroots]

I have an HP, would this make installing a new motherboard/processor more difficult? I am satisfied with the machine as a whole, I was just wondering if there was a relatively easy way to upgrade my 3200 XP without building a whole new machine. From my research on these forums, it seems that the motherboard processor upgrade doesnt sound too hard, but I dont know if that changes since we are talking about a HP.

 

[imported_whatever]

Originally posted by: Grassroots
I have an HP, would this make installing a new motherboard/processor more difficult? I am satisfied with the machine as a whole, I was just wondering if there was a relatively easy way to upgrade my 3200 XP without building a whole new machine. From my research on these forums, it seems that the motherboard processor upgrade doesnt sound too hard, but I dont know if that changes since we are talking about a HP.

i am not sure, but the HP connectors on the PSU may be different from normal ATX ones. this would mean that any motherboard you put in that wasn't configured with the custom HP connectors would be fried. i know this is true with Dell, so you should first take a multimeter and back-probe your connectors to make sure they are the right voltage. assuming that they are, you then want to make sure that all of the standoffs are in the right place on the motherboard. overall, i think that you would be much better off buying a new case in addition (for about $100, the Antec Sonata is a nice case that is fairly small and quiet) and then migrating everything else over to it.

 

[perillo34]

Go with an Epox 9nda3j or + series with a 3200 winchester for higher oc's, rock stable board for me, but this just my experience

 

[Grassroots]

Thank you to everyone for the replies! I think the next step for me will be to find a motherboard that will be compatible with my HP computer, and then find an appropriate processor for that board. If anyone has experience with upgrading a motherboard on an HP system, is there anything special that needs to be done? The website for my motherboard is here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu...oduct=431077&dlc=en&docname=c00069442#

Under form it is listed as micro-ATX. I am not entirely sure, but am i correct in the assumption that micro ATX is the same as ATX, except for physical size? I guess the real question is that as long as the new board that I buy is ATX, should I be ok? I will likely have to buy a new case, as I can see that the boards that have been reccomended are larger than mine, but that is not a problem. Thanks to everyone for the help!